Sales, Promotion and Marketing

Some time ago, I took an assignment in Venezuela. The position involved on-site data processing at the field location – a leading-edge innovation at the time. From the start, I was involved in marketing, promoting and convincing clients that they wanted data processing in the field. This had the side effect of a higher level of quality control which promoted our position in acquisition contracts. The software was called MicroMAX. I demonstrated and promoted its use in the field on the several crew in Venezuela and trained client personnel (Maraven) along with Western operators who went on to successful contracts for field processing on many crews in South America.

Much of the training and marketing was carried out in Spanish, as one might expect. The projects were on the northern slope of the Andean mountain range as it passes to the South of Lake Maracaibo. After a year there, we were transferred to Eastern Venezuela near Maturin. There, we participated in one of the first 3D Projects in South America. We developed 3D quality control procedures that positioned us for more and better 3D contracts. Later, we continued with the same sort of marketing and promotion in Bolivia.

At Grant Geophysical, we promoted the use of MicroMAX and other QC and field processing software. Myself and my colleagues there were instrumental in the development of MESA and OMNI survey design packages. We also promoted and marketed products like ProMAX, EDS Verify and Census, in the US, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.

At Petroleum Geo Services, as a part of the Geophysical Support Group, I marketed their seismic source modeling package MASOMO which is unparalleled in accurate modeling and backed up by exhaustive field testing. In later years, I was the “go-to” expert on MASMO and marketed the package and instructed operators of other contractors (CGG for example) and major oil companies (ExxonMobil,e.g.). I was also frequently called upon to demonstrate data to clients (Anadarko, for example) using the PGS 3D visualization package called holoSeis. We also marketed and executed feasibility and design studies to major clients (PEMEX, Woodside, e.g.).

While others might have ”closed the deals”, my work in promotion, marketing and instruction was crucial in making the sales of software and services, for well over twenty years.